A landlady of a pub was left ‘stunned’ after being refused insurance by Hastings Direct – because her pub is called ‘The Cock Inn’.

Landlady Deborah Davis sent an application for her family-run pub in Brent Eleigh, which included an email and her address.

But Hastings’ IT filters rejected the application on the spot after picking up on the name Cock Inn.

She said: “I was absolutely stunned - I couldn’t believe that I was rejected just because of the name of my pub. I asked for a quote and they wanted to see proof that I have a maximum nine-year no-claim bonus.

“I copied the document and emailed it them - only to be told that they couldn’t open the file because it was blocked by a language filter.

“It didn’t make any sense but when I queried it they explained that it was because the name of the pub is the Cock Inn,” she told The Suffolk Free Press.

A spokeswoman for Hastings Direct said: “Due to data protection obligations, we are unable to comment on the circumstances of an individual customer.

“However we can confirm that, as is common practice with any large company, Hastings Direct has e-mail security systems in place to protect customers and colleagues. These include filtering emails and attachments for potential profanity.”

Topics